When people hear “free college,” I think most of them assume that it’s a bunch of Millennials thinking they are entitled to things without having to work hard for it. Let’s be honest, I make as many #firstworldproblems jokes as any privileged, white young lady would (a lot), but as a young college student I think that it is important to understand that most of us work very hard in college and still end up with hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans. And that’s with scholarships and grants. I don’t think it’s very unreasonable to ask for a little extra help from taxpayers to eliminate some of the financial burdens that students across America face. That being said, I think a lot of skeptics should be informed of the not-so-far-fetched idea of “free college” and hopefully, more of you will jump on the bandwagon.

I think the first important thing to think about is the fact that this is not an unusual concept. Many countries including Germany, Finland, Sweden and Norway already offer higher education tuition free because they believe that the high costs discourage students from getting a college education (duh!). Most of their tuition prices were much, much lower than the average college tuition price in America (i.e. average tuition price in Germany was previously around $1,300 while in America it is currently anywhere from $10,000-$30,000). As a taxpayer myself, I would happily hand over a couple bucks to help the average student get the education they deserve for the hard work they put in. It’s simple: the more people exposed to higher education, the less stupidity will be in this world, and therefore, we’ll all exist more happily than the days when we perpetually lived the life of Scar…

The second thing that is important to fully understand is Bernie Sanders’ promises on the issue. Here is a direct quote from his presidential webpage: “As President, Bernie Sanders will fight to make sure that every American who studies hard in school can go to college regardless of how much money their parents make and without going deeply into debt”. This means that just because college is “free” does not mean that just anyone can get in. Our tax dollars would be going to free education for those that genuinely study hard and deserve to further their education despite any financial predicaments that they may be in. So many intelligent brains are already going to waste simply because their lack of money discourages them from attempting a higher education.

The last thing I want to leave my dear readers with is the fact that “free education” has a lot of room for negotiation to get the best policy possible for American citizens as a whole. If you don’t want ALL college to be free for everyone, maybe you would consider having a few free colleges throughout the country—similar to the way we have some free high school and some private high schools that require tuition payments. Either way, there are options for those less fortunate. Free education is something that is without a doubt a good investment. It may require a reformation of the distribution of funds within the government, but it is not impossible and isabsolutely worth it.